Dictator Stalin was softie and cry-baby
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Moscow (AP) - After 60 years as a Kremlin maid, Polina Malinkina has issued her verdict on its best-known inhabitants.
The dictator Josef Stalin was a "kind" man often ready to break into tears. His feared security chief, Lavrenty Beria, was "weird". "He tore all the papers on his desk into small pieces and tossed them around his office," she said.
And the current President, Boris Yeltsin, sometimes sneaks off to a church in the Kremlin's grounds, she said in an interview published yesterday in the daily Komsomolskaya Pravda.
"I've heard he secretly visits the church and is praying quietly so that [Communist leader Gennady] Zyuganov doesn't see him," she said. "Can you rule Russia without God?"
Ms Malinkina, who is in her eighties and still works at the Kremlin, said she is so well-known that only she and Mr Yeltsin are not asked to show identification when entering the building. She joined the Kremlin staff in the winter of 1937 at the height of Stalin's purges, which claimed countless lives, but said she never feared him. "He was a very short man and so kind too," she said. "He had a very tender look and his eyes were often full of tears. He had such a pity for simple people." Ms Malinkina is a religious woman, and said the only time Stalin offended her was when he ordered a church bell to be thrown off a Kremlin bell tower.
For her, all Kremlin dwellers fall into two categories: those who wipe their feet at the door and those who don't. Mr Yeltsin falls into the first, along with Stalin and former Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev.
Ms Malinkina, nicknamed "Baba Polya", said that her only dream, unfulfilled after 60 years, was to get a telephone in her apartment. "What if they need me urgently at the Kremlin?" she said.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments